Wi-Fi

CES 2010 may have ended on Sunday, but we're still finding lots of cool products from the expo. One of my favorite items shown this year is RCA's Airnergy Charger; a device that collects energy from ambient Wi-Fi signals and turns it into DC power. It can also store the energy in its internal battery for use later, but if you're looking to charge up at a Wi-Fi hotspot, it shouldn't take too long. According to RCA, they were able to fully recharge a BlackBerry from 30% in about 90 minutes. That's not fast, but it's not slow either!

Photos and videos follow after the break!

A recent job opening posted by Apple on their website may hint at 802.11n Wi-Fi in the next iPhone. After the third generation iPod touch was found to contain the Broadcom BCM4329 chip capable of 802.11n (but only enabled for 802.11g) it was suspected that the faster protocol was just on the horizon. This advertisement, which is looking for a software engineer specializing in Wi-Fi protocols to join the iPhone team, would appear to be intended for just that purpose.

In an attempt to transition their public appearance from a fast food grab-and-go style restaurant to more of a hangout coffee shop, McDonalds will now be offering Wi-Fi for free through none other than AT&T. Previously they only offered Wi-Fi for a $2.95 fee for two hours, and it was only available at 11,000 of their 14,000 locations.

Earlier this week, news of the iDriver application, which was developed by computer science researchers at Berlin's Free University, hit the web. As the name would suggest, the application allowed users to drive a modified minivan, the "Spirit of Berlin." Per PopSci, steering, break and acceleration commands are sent over Wi-Fi and the demo video features researchers are driving it around an airport for testing.

Video below!

At long last and after months of rumors, China Unicom has reached a 3-year deal with Apple to offer the iPhone in China. According to Macworld, the company is expected to launch the phone in the fourth quarter of this year, it said in a statement. The deal brings the iPhone to a huge market in a country with nearly 700 million mobile subscribers.

Per TheStreet.com, an official representing China Unicom confirmed that the wireless carrier is currently in talks with Apple to function as the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in China, but denied that the company recently purchased five million handsets.

Apple has posted a new support document responding to issues with connecting to Bluetooth and WiFi on their 3GSs. According to the document, titled "Unable to use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth with iPhone or iPod touch because there’s no address listed for the device" if you have a grayed-out bluetooth icon, no address for either Bluetooth or WiFi, or you can't use a WiFi network even though it says you're connected, or you can't pair Bluetooth devices to your 3GS, then they list some things you can try to fix it.

UK iPhone carrier O2 has signed a deal with BT Openzone, adding another 3,000 Wi-Fi hotspots that O2 iPhone users can now access in hotels, airports and coffee shops, including Starbucks. This is in addition to the 5,000 owned and operated by The Cloud that iPhone owners can also access.
[via Macworld]

AT&T revealed a minor but pleasant surprise coming with the iPhone OS 3.0 software. They announced that all 20,000+ of their Wi-Fi hotspots in the U.S. will support auto-authentication, letting them skip the authentication process. That means that as of today, instead of having to sign in, your iPhone will automatically switch from 3G to Wi-Fi when you're at an AT&T hotspot. The hotspots are free to use on your iPhone for anyone with an unlimited data plan.

Silicon Alley Insider reports that a "pluged-in" source inside the cellular business has information that the next iPhone 3G will have a "significantly faster" internet connection than it's predecessor. It is not known if the source was referring to Wi-Fi or the cellular data connection, but both could potentially be upgraded.